You may have heard people talking/blogging/twittering about SOPA — the Stop Online Piracy Act.
Many people don’t truly understand what can go very, very wrong with this proposed Online Act. Please take a moment to watch this video and find out more about SOPA / PIPA Acts – Get Educated!

“Sites such as Wikipedia and Reddit are going “dark” this Wednesday, Jan. 18, to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) which, critics contend, would compromise the ability of any site that includes outside links to carry on current operations.

Feeling left out? A simple piece of code is helping the entire web (from major sites to even the humblest of Tumblrs) go dark in solidarity. The code, called STOP SOPA, replaces any site’s landing page with a black screen. Using your mouse a flashlight uncovers a message explaining the need to kill SOPA and a link to anti-SOPA site AmericanCensorship.org.”

Today I had a gmail loading issue which required a cache clearing to solve. So as usual I went to the tools menu in Firefox to complete the task……but low and behold it wasn’t there. Not sure why such a commonly used item is no longer easily accesible from Firefoxes menu bar, but you can still access it via a longer method. BTW if you’re using Cometbird, you will need to follow the same instructions to locate the cache.

You’ll want to access the tools menu item and select options. Next click on advanced, then select the network tab. In the offline storage box you will find the clear now button that will clear your cache.

If you’re new to Firefox, you probably aren’t aware of how easy it is to search quickly and easily from within your browser’s address bar. No, you don’t have to go to a new tab and type in google’s web address, or any other search engine’s address…

Firefox comes with a few built in “quick searches” depending on your version. So we’ll start by taking a look at those, and then delving into how easily you can add your own.
You can perform a google search “out of the box” with Firefox just by typing your search term into the address bar and hitting enter. The only caveat to this is, it defaults to the “I’m feeling lucky” search. Well I don’t know about you, but lady luck doesn’t smile on me very often. So let’s change that to a regular google search. Begin by typing about:config in your address bar and hitting enter.

Now scroll down to keyword.URL in the preferences column on the left. Once there, right click and select “modify” from the list. Then adjust the URL as seen here:

Now, just typing in your address bar will produce a regular google search. Next let’s look at the other searches built into Firefox using the quick search bookmarks. Go up to your menu bar and click “bookmarks” then “organize bookmarks” to open the Bookmarks Manager. Scroll down the left side and double click on “Quick Searches”. Here’s a pic of what is in my quick searches by default. If you want to change something, just right click a quick search and select “properties” to make your changes.

I’m editing the dictionary quick search so that it will load with a “d” instead of “dict”.

Now I just have to go to my address bar (ctrl + L) and type the letter d followed by a space, and then my search term, to do a quick dictionary search of a word.
You can tweak quick searches by adding your own for the sites you use the most. Go to any search engine, or any site with a search feature built in and you can add a quick keyword search of your own. Just right click anywhere in the search box and select “add a keyword for this search”. I’m adding one for urban dictionary, since I sometimes need to decode some people’s language.

Just repeat that procedure to add as many quick searches you want for the sites you use regularly. If you go back into your Bookmark Manager they will appear in your “quick searches” bookmarks. If you want to add in the keyword you used into the description column that appears in the Bookmark Manager, just right click your quick search, select the properties, and in the description box type in your reminder.

I admit it, I’m an addon whore. I love the ability to customize my browser to my liking, and often try new addons to make firefox more useful. Unfortunately, the more addons I use, the slower my browser becomes, so I often find myself disabling some addons to keep Firefox running more smoothly. Below is the list of my “must have” extensions that are required for my daily browsing habits.

My first must have is febe. The purpose of this extension is to backup your Firefox should it go whacko on you. It handles your extensions, themes, bookmarks, preferences, passwords, cookies and even your entire profile. You can customize which parts to backup and/or reinstall through the febe options found in your tools menu. Backups are automatically stored in your My Documents folder. This addon makes it insanely easy to transfer all your Firefox customization to a new computer. Rather than having to manually install your favorite addons, you need only install febe, then load one of your backups and allow it to do the work of customizing your new Firefox installation to your liking.

Must have number 2 is foxmarks. I’m one of those people who prefer having my bookmarks sitting right within my browser. And foxmarks enables me to have access to my bookmarks from any computer running firefox and keeps everything nicely synchronized.

The next extension justy & I can’t live without is cooliris previews. This helpful little tool allows you a preview of any link just by hovering over it, without having to leave the main page or open a new tab/window. It’s become an indispensable part of my daily browsing, especially when previewing results in google. It also allows you to create stacks, and email cool finds with one click. There are a variety of ways to customize its display and features to your liking.

Linkification is my next must have. It converts text based links into clickable links. I find it invaluable when reading forums where people post websites without providing an actual link. Used in conjunction with Cooliris, i am able to view any website recommendations without having to leave the current page.

My next 2 necessities pertain to google. The first is google previews which places a thumbnail view of each search result on the left side of the window. I find it handy to have a mini-view of the website right within my google search results. The second is customize google which has many customization options available, but the ones most immediately useful are google suggest-which gives you search suggestions as you type in the search bar, and competitor links that perform your search on a variety of other search engines. It also allows you to remove google Ads, filter your search results, and automatically access your gmail, google docs, and google reader accounts through https.

I couldn’t survive myspace without greasemonkey. I use several scripts that make navigating myspace much easier and friendly on the eyes. But it’s not just about myspace. There are scripts available for probably any website you use that will make it more attractive and easier to manipulate for your purposes. Go here to check out the wide variety of goodies available for Greasemonkey.

Another myspace essential is adblock. Couldn’t live without it for blocking myspace trackers. Add justy’s link here. But I must have stylish to make it behave to my liking.